CONCORD — On Thursday March 14 (Pi Day!) NHTI, Concord’s Community College, will proudly host the first annual Girls Technology Day, an initiative of the New Hampshire Department of Education’s Career Development Bureau. With over 175 girls already signed up to attend (and six more high schools on the waiting list should spaces open up), demand for the program has far outstripped its capacity, and there is already talk of moving to a larger venue next year.

“In New Hampshire, as in other states, there is a severe shortage of women pursuing technical careers,” says conference chair Mary Laturnau, who works in collaboration with the Career Development Bureau. Fewer than two percent of students pursuing computer science degrees in NH colleges, for example, are women. Girls Technology Day is one step toward trying to reverse that trend.

Laturnau says that the enthusiasm for the project across the state has been inspiring. “This has truly been a collaboration of every level of education in New Hampshire,” including high schools, community colleges, universities. The event is funded by a Perkins Grant for non-traditional career development.

The group decided to focus on grades 8, 9 and 10, because that is that age at which many young people begin focusing on interests that may ultimately become career paths. Paradoxically, it is also the age at which girls often seem to get “turned off” to math, science and technology. Invitations went out to New Hampshire high schools, but educators were urged not to make the event a mandatory field trip. “We want the girls who want to attend,” says Laturnau.

Girls Technology Day will open with a keynote address by Catherine Blake of the University of New Hampshire’s Peter T. Paul School of Business and Economics. A marketing professional with over 20 years’ experience with Fortune 500 companies, Blake now runs her own firm, Sales Protocol International, and serves as a mentor to young business people. Her community group, “MarketPlace Connection,” works to raise the bar for ethics and integrity in the business world. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the New Hampshire High Tech Council.

After the address, the girls will break up into a series of hands-on workshops exploring various high technology topics. Students will be able to attend four out of ten available sessions, including:

3-D Modeling

Building Mobile Apps with HTML, CSS and jQuery Mobile

Careers in Technology Round Table

Cisco VoIP demo / class

Cyber Security

Game Programming with Greenfoot

Inventing Apps for Android Phones

Kodu Game Lab

Making Ethernet Cables 101

VEX Robotics.

The workshops will be led by educators and business leaders from various New Hampshire universities community colleges and industries. The group is now soliciting donations of items the girls can take home at the end of the day as mementos of their experience. Monetary donations are also welcome.

Businesses and institutions interested in supporting Girls Technology Day can contact Mihaela Sabin, coordinator of the Computing Technology program at UNH Manchester,mihaela.sabin@unh.edu, 400 Commercial St, Manchester, 03101. Checks should be made out to UNH with “Girls Technology Day” in the memo area.